


puddle jumper

by montygreenbean (bottomoftheocean)



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, murphy is grumpy and half asleep, murven - Freeform, raven installed a real cheesy doorbell in murphy's house, raven wants to jump in puddles, there's lots of water involved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 01:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15938933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bottomoftheocean/pseuds/montygreenbean
Summary: “you’re a fucking child.”“i simply suggested that we should go splash in the puddles outside, damn.”-Raven Reyes woke up after a rainy night with the inexplicable desire to jump in puddles and act like a small child. Who better to share that experience with than her best friend, John Murphy?It's only slightly inconvenient for Raven's emotions (and secret crush) that he answers the door in only his boxers.





	puddle jumper

**Author's Note:**

> hey friends! it's been awhile, but here i am with another fic! this time i decided that i'd make an attempt at writing murven just because i love them and also, this ship is in _desperate_ need of more content at all times.
> 
> however, i was really nervous about characterization when writing this pairing. i have never written murphy as more than a background character, and i was honestly scared of all the nuances his character has. i'm really not sure how i've done here, but i tried and that's all that matters, yeah?
> 
> characters belong, as always, to kass morgan and the cw!  
> keep in mind this is unedited and probably vaguely "oof" in nature, but i wanted to share it anyhow :) i do hope you enjoy!
> 
> // based off a drabble prompt i found on tumblr //

Raven parked her car in her best friend’s driveway at admittedly a rather early hour for a Saturday morning. But hell, she was not about to miss out on the opportunity to pretend she was a kid again for all of five minutes, and she was damn sure not doing it alone. So, she dragged her bum leg out of the car and limped up to John Murphy’s door, determined to make him join her.

She pressed the doorbell (which she’d forced him to let her install just so she could ring it and enjoy the funniest thing she’d ever thought of––a customizable doorbell that sang “Let ‘Em In” by Paul McCartney every time it rang) and chuckled to herself as it played its song. She heard Murphy groan from his open bedroom window above her, having clearly just woken at the sound of the doorbell.

“Reyes, what the fuck are you doing?” he bellowed, unimpressed by the wake-up call. Not a minute later, he had stumbled down the stairs to the door and opened it just far enough to make it clear that he hadn’t bothered to put on any clothes, opting instead to answer the door in his boxers. Raven swallowed thickly, purposely ignoring that fact and refusing to let her eyes leave his face (as if that were any safer when it came to John Murphy and those feelings she was fully dedicated to avoiding indefinitely). “It’s eight o’clock in the damn morning, this had better be important.”

She pressed her lips together for a moment, cluing him into the fact that her request was not, in fact, ‘important.’ “Okay,” she started to say, “well, maybe this isn’t  _ super  _ important, but it is rather time sensitive and I only felt it necessary that you were included in my plans for this fine morning.” 

Murphy raised an eyebrow, opening the door further to gesture her inside. She pointedly averted her eyes to the dragon mural on his wall rather than thinking about the amount of pale skin he had on display, as he told her to “Get on with it.”

See, the problem with the situation at hand, and the part that Raven really hadn’t thought through before waking him like this––hey, she was a mechanical genius, she didn’t always  _ have  _ to have perfect common sense––was that Raven had been steadily developing feelings for her best friend for months. She had tried to deny it for weeks in the beginning, until that day in January when she had possibly the worst day of her life and he’d come to her with a five gallon bucket––which he’d stolen from Bellamy’s workplace the day before when he’d visited, but Raven wasn’t going to say anything––full of all her favorite things. He had even let her braid his hair and do his makeup that night, something that she always begged for but he would never let her. 

It was that night that she realized there was no getting around the crush she had on John Murphy, but it was also that night she convinced herself she could  _ never  _ tell him. So now she found herself stuck in the position where he obviously didn’t care what state of undress he was in and she cared way too much for her own good. 

She studied the details in the dragon’s scales, opting for the simplest explanation of why she’d woken him. “It was raining all night last night and your yard has bigger puddles than mine. I wasn’t gonna come to your house without waking you,” she said, hoping he’d understand and not be any more annoyed than was his default.

“You’re a fucking child,” he replied, shaking his head. She could hear the slightest hint of amusement in his tone, though she still refused to look him in the eye.

“I simply suggested that we should go splash in the puddles outside, damn.”

“Are you sure this couldn’t have waited for a more reasonable time of the morning, Reyes?” Murphy asked, rubbing his face and attracting her gaze with his movement. Raven swore under her breath.

“It hasn’t been raining for hours, Murphy! What if the puddles dry up? We absolutely cannot take that chance.”

Murphy rolled his eyes. “I won’t call you a child again but you should at least know that’s what I’m thinking,” he said, but he moved towards the staircase anyhow.

“But you’re about to be a child with me, aren’t you?” Raven smirked. She knew he’d oblige.

He shot her a lopsided grin. “You know I could never say no to you.” As he turned to pad back up the stairs, presumably to put on more clothes before going outside, Raven couldn’t help herself but to appreciate the view. “And don’t stare at my ass!” he called down jokingly. He knew her too well, she decided.

She meant to deny it, really she did, but what came out of her mouth was instead, “I’ll stare all I want to, John Murphy.” It sounded like a joke. At least, she thought it did. But he had to have known better than that, because he stopped and turned to face her, still halfway up the stairs.

“Oh, so you’ll only look at me when we’re not having a conversation. Okay, fantastic.”

“What are you talking about, Murphy?”

“I’m talking about your sudden interest in the mural that I painted on the wall over a year ago, Raven. I’m talking about the fact that you won’t look me in the eye even now.” He walked back down the stairs until the two of them were once again on even ground.

Raven could feel herself begin to sweat. Immediately, her inner monologue switched from thinking about puddles to simply,  _ “deny, deny, deny.”  _ She couldn’t let him know about this ridiculous crush she had been harboring for so long. Not only would he never let her  _ live  _ it down, but also he’d have to  _ let  _ her down as gently as it was possible for Murphy to do anything (ergo not very gently at all). It would be  _ awkward, _ and nothing between them had ever been that way.

“Tell me what’s really going on here,” he said, coming close enough that she could reach out and touch him, if only she dared.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just came here to have a little fun and be like a kid again for a few minutes. I thought you would be down for it, but apparently you’re not.” She sounded unconvincing even to her own ears.

Murphy lost almost every ounce of dry sarcasm in his tone as he lowered his voice and spoke calmly to her. “Raven, you know you can tell me anything. I’m your best friend.”

She brushed it off. “Nothing is wrong, Murphy, just let me go jump in the damn puddles. I can make a fool out of myself all on my own.”

He took a step back, hurt lacing his every feature. “Fine, if that’s what you want so fucking badly, you don’t have to tell me anything. Maybe you should just go home.”

Raven didn’t say another word. She turned around and walked out the door, knowing neither exactly what had happened nor how to repair the damage she’d potentially done. She could no longer find it in herself to want to even walk through the puddles, let alone splash in them. As she trudged back to her car, she caught a glimpse of the five gallon bucket sitting at the side of Murphy’s house, having collected a significant amount of rainwater overnight.

She felt a twinge of sadness at the sight of it, but at the same time her brain ignited with mischief. The way she’d always gotten Murphy to forgive her after a fight was to joke around and pretend like nothing had ever happened. Why not try it this time?

And so she dumped some of the water out of the bucket, until it was light enough for her to lift, and carried it back to the front door. Before she could second guess herself, she rang the doorbell again.

Murphy came to the door, but opened it only a crack, asking, “What, come here to make me hate myself too now?” with more bitterness than she’d ever heard him direct at her.

“No, Murphy. I couldn’t let myself leave without at least trying to explain. It’s just that if I tell you this one thing, it could probably ruin everything else good in my life so I’d really like to keep this one to myself. Just… can you open the door?”

And so he did, still wearing only his boxers. Raven steeled herself, this time trying to prove to him that she could keep eye contact as well as trying to dampen his anger further. “I don’t know what you really need from me here, but…” he started to say, but trailed off, unsure of how to finish the sentence.

Raven feigned innocence. “Oh, just had a little… idea, shall I say.” And then, with no further warning, she launched the water at her friend, soaking both him and the floor behind him.

He looked utterly bewildered. “What the fuck, Reyes?” he cried, actually sounding angry for a moment. But then he saw the shit-eating grin plastered on her face and the rage dissipated instantly. “Oh, I see how it is,” he amended, taking only the smallest fraction of a second to decide upon his next move.

Murphy grabbed her around the waist and tossed her easily over his shoulder, soaking the front of her T-shirt and doing exactly what she’d expected him to. She flailed in his grip, trying to convince him to let her go, but he refused.

A full-on play-fight ensued, and Raven could only be glad her plan had seemed to work in distracting Murphy from their earlier argument. She was hardly even registering the close proximity they remained in, too set now on winning the fight.

She successfully slid out of his grip after a few minutes, though she landed a little too hard on her bad leg and, in the process of trying to regain balance, slipped on the wet floor and thudded onto the hardwood, accidentally-on-purpose tugging Murphy down with her. They landed on the floor in a sort of heap, with Raven flat on her back and Murphy having flopped at an awkward angle on top of her.

His demeanor changed instantly, no longer concerned with the fight and now worried that he had injured her somehow. “Raven, are you okay?” he asked, attempting to scramble off her and reach for her leg brace.

“Murphy, I’m fine, I just landed on my bad leg. Didn’t mean to take you down with me, sorry.”

He ignored her, unfastening the brace tenderly and checking to make sure that her leg wasn’t injured further. She watched as he checked her over gingerly, genuine concern never leaving his face. He worked his way up her body, examining what seemed to be each and every spot he’d potentially touched her during their hijinks. He was so careful with her, worrying he’d hurt her in some way and doing all he could to fix it. It was the sweetest he’d ever been to her besides the day in January, and Raven found herself trying to push her feelings down even as they bubbled ever closer to the surface.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Murphy asked again when he finished checking her over. “Dammit, Reyes, you scared me when you fell like that.” He sounded concerned even still. Raven squeezed her fists tightly, willing her feelings away.

“I promise you I would tell you if I was hurt. Besides maybe a couple bumps and bruises from falling on my ass, I think I came out unscathed.” Soaked, maybe, but unscathed. Her blue T-shirt clung to her as she tried to get to her feet, though she was prevented again by the wet floor.

If Raven could ever credit John Murphy with one single thing, it was that he clearly cared about her far more than he even cared about himself. His bare toes slipped and slid across the floor but he still managed to help her to her feet, leading her to a part of the floor that the water had somehow now reached.

And then, their vicinity was suddenly something Raven could no longer put out of her mind. His hands wrapped around hers and his clear, blue eyes bore into hers. His concern no longer showed on his face, thankfully, but there was something different there, something she didn’t think she had seen from him since before Emori had broken up with him the prior summer. It was the most affectionate, fond look he’d ever aimed in Raven’s direction, and she suddenly felt overwhelmed by her need to stop hiding her emotions from him. She could tell that something had shifted in the last ten minutes, and it no longer made her uneasy to think about the prospect of telling him.

“So, uh, Murphy?” she started to say. “About that thing I mentioned earlier, you know, the one I said might ruin everything?”

“How could I forget?” he said dryly. “That was the last moment I knew what it felt like to not be drenched in last night’s rainwater.”

“Yeah, well, uh… I think I might’ve been wrong about that.” Before the confusion could fully settle into his face, Raven unclasped her hands from Murphy’s and took his face into her palms, tugging him forward into a kiss. 

The moment their lips met, she could feel his entire body tense up and then immediately relax into her touch. He pulled her closer into him, his hands at her hips with a grip so solid she never wanted him to let go.

When Raven pulled back, Murphy’s face broke into a true smile, one he reserved for only the rarest of occasions. “Yeah, I’d say you probably were,” he said with a chuckle. “Bellamy’s been telling me to get my shit together and date you for months now, but I didn’t believe him when he told me you’d actually say yes.”

Raven simply kissed him again. “I would love to date you, John Murphy.”

“Well then, Raven Reyes, what do you say our first couple’s task is to go puddle jumping like a couple of five-year-olds?”

And if she dragged him to the yard in his underwear, well, no one else would have to know.

**Author's Note:**

> please please let me know your thoughts on this fic!  
> i love hearing what people have to say about my work, especially when i question myself as much as i did before and while writing this. 
> 
> feel free to leave comments+kudos!
> 
> ~ mikki <3


End file.
